10 replies to this topic

[hustlerinc]

What are the basic positions available in modern armies that could be implemented in games?
I'm thinking of stuff like artillery, medic, sniper and so on. Anyone want to list the basics possible to use in a strategy game?

Also a short description of the occupation would be appreciated, since I'm not familiar with military and defense stuff.

[bollµ]

I think team fortress 2 handled this question for you ;)

[hustlerinc]

I think team fortress 2 handled this question for you ;)

Visited their site and couldn't find any information about units. Either I'm blind or they don't have it there.

[Stormynature]

Army types

• Rifleman: Standard point and shoot guy
• Mortar specialist: Indirect fire i.e. mini-artillery
• Heavy Weapons: Large machine gun users
• Sniper: Occupies bell towers and suburban shopping malls when not at McD’s
• Radio Operator: Calls in airstrikes, extractions etc
• Medic: Highly trained first aid specialist – not a doctor
• Pastor: Religious support
• Flamethrower: Possibly the best description of this guy is “Meet the Pyro” by Valve
• Intelligence officer: Varied but information extraction (aka torture) and analysis of enemy intel
• Combat Engineer: Demolitions and constructions
• Scout: Reconnaissance specialist

There is no doubt a lot more but would probably need you to focus you question into something more specific in which to provide more focussed information

[hustlerinc]

There is no doubt a lot more but would probably need you to focus you question into something more specific in which to provide more focussed information

I'm just gathering info for a small strategy game project of mine, that list is more than enough for me, gives me a good grasp of what i could use.

Could only come up with artillery, sniper, RPG, and medic myself.

Thanks. =)

[GninjaGnome]

That question will have a lot of answers depending on what you are looking for.

Are you thinking of a squad, platoon, division?
Are you concerned with stuff like admin, mechanics,cooks, etc., or just combat arms?

I didn't dig too deep into this, but I'm sure you can find plenty here.
http://army.com/info/mos/all

M.O.S (Military Occupational Skills)is probably the acronym you are looking for.

[Iron Chef Carnage]

There are role designations, which you've got here in ample measure, and then there's military infrastructure, which GninjaGnome's link is a window onto. You need to be sure to enslave this idea to your game design. I think you should also enslave the roles to your game design. You specified "modern armies" in your post, but as you think about roles, abstract it a bit. Make the setting less important than the gameplay applications. Try to re-skin your ideas in different settings, as a thought experiment. Think of grenadiers and paladins and Protoss when you define the parameters of your scenarios. Do you want to have healers(medics, priests, nanobots)? Do you want to have projected area-of-effect damage effects (grenades, artillery, fireballs, orbital cannons)? Do you want to have targeted mesmerizing(roots, psionic paralysis, caltrops)? Define the rules of your game, and then make it fit into a setting.

More to the point, I loves me some BF2, so I'd recommend having a Squad Leader role, an otherwise unremarkable player who is empowered with the ability to request support in the form of remote arty strikes, supply packages or vehicles based on the team's needs. A guy who can hunker down behind cover, fire up his minimap/radio/iPad and set some waypoints and/or objectives, providing guidance and sub-objectives to his mates in the heat of a chaotic battle.

Brink tried to integrate sub-objectives into map design, having blockades that could be fortified or breached, environmental features that could be exploited for XP and strongholds to be held or overtaken. Make that sort of thing more fluid, and allow human minds to designate it on the fly, and you'll be looking at a battlefield with dynamic areas of contention, like a Starcraft map, being competed for by orchestrated intelligent effort, like high-level FPS play.

And put in a guy with a bazooka. Bazookas rule.

[hustlerinc]

Define the rules of your game, and then make it fit into a setting.

This is all done, with a semi complete GDD. The only thing missing is the different soldiers I want to implement and their roles.

More to the point, I loves me some BF2, so I'd recommend having a Squad Leader role, an otherwise unremarkable player who is empowered with the ability to request support in the form of remote arty strikes, supply packages or vehicles based on the team's needs. A guy who can hunker down behind cover, fire up his minimap/radio/iPad and set some waypoints and/or objectives, providing guidance and sub-objectives to his mates in the heat of a chaotic battle.

In my game this is the role of the player. He controls a squad (which he puts together himself based on need and playstyle) on a battlefield.

And there will be places like bottlenecks etc which benefits the one in control of them. This will make these places the main goal of the battle. Think Normandy on D-Day and the strategical benefit that beach had to the war.

And the opponents are all humans, so there is a real intelligence to beat instead of AI (only AI is path and collision detection).

[hustlerinc]

That question will have a lot of answers depending on what you are looking for.

Are you thinking of a squad, platoon, division?
Are you concerned with stuff like admin, mechanics,cooks, etc., or just combat arms?

I didn't dig too deep into this, but I'm sure you can find plenty here.
http://army.com/info/mos/all

M.O.S (Military Occupational Skills)is probably the acronym you are looking for.

My IP was banned from that website , even though I've never entered it. Maybe I'm viewed as a terrorist cause I live in Turkey? =)

[Stormynature]

Last I recall Turkey was a member of Nato and thus an ally of the "Western World". However the easiest way to check would get someone else over there to see if they can access it.

[hustlerinc]

Last I recall Turkey was a member of Nato and thus an ally of the "Western World". However the easiest way to check would get someone else over there to see if they can access it.

Yeah and we have good relations with the US government, Dick Cheney even visited some months ago. It was meant more as a joke, don't know why they ban my IP and it surely wont change my life not being able to visit it.

But I'm sure I can get some info on http://www.army.mil. Browsing through it right now.

Also googleing the phrase "Military Occupational Skills" provided by GninjaGnome gave me alot of information. I have more to go on right now.

To make the discussion broader and maybe provide me with more information I would like to ask what kind of occupations you guys see fit in a military based strategy game.
As stated earlier the troops are ordered by the player, but maybe having a squad leader could prove beneficial if someone finds a good use of it.